You have to go back to the ninth game of the season to find when we played the away game against Derby County at Pride Park and a lot has changed since then. Saints are of course a completely different side and a different proposition to what they were back then, and Derby would argue that they are also. Derby had a diabolical start to this season and looked like early relegation candidates but have sorted themselves out under Jon Eustace and are now very much in the running for nicking a play-off place and a potential return to the Premier League.

The last time they were in the Premier L:eague was 2007/08 and they were shite, even more so than we were last year, when Derby were mentioned a lot around Southampton, for the very poor reason that Derby had the worst season ever in the Premier League, a season that it was thought would never be matched in its complete 11 point shite-ness. Saints of course had a fucking good go and eventually finished on one point more. Derby have never been back since that relegation and have had four unsuccessful playoff campaigns, which they deserved after beating us in the playoffs in 2006/07, which was one of the more traumatizing defeats that I can remember us having. As I wrote in the preamble for the away game https://league1minus10.co.uk/2025/10/07/championship-match-9-derby-county-1-southampton-1/ – “It actually started in the first game with Derby kicking Gareth Bale out of the second game and when the second game arrived, Burley picked Kelvin Davis for his first game in months and he fumbled us 2-0 behind in the first minute before Colombian drug lord Jhonny Viafara scored twice and I sorry I ruined the party, before Leon Best’s impossible own goal, before Rasiak took us to penalties, before ex Derby penalty King, Inigo Idiakez, smashed his penalty at the fucking moon.”

A potential return to the Premier League is of course very much on Saints radar now after a run of 13 games without defeat in the Championship, not to mention a run to the FA Cup semi-final. We are feeling massively good about ourselves, which could not be said back in week nine of the season when Will Still was our manager and we had vibes instead of a plan and it only took the slightest adversity for the whole team to go to shit. The Derby game was memorable for us taking the lead when Adam Armstrong dribbled through three powderpuff challenges before scoring and then us looking totally in command until Ross Stewart, starting his third game in a week, picked up a hamstring injury to put him out for three months. Derby predictably fought back for a point when Ryan Manning decided that arguing with the linesman over a throw-in he had clearly given away, was a better use of his time than getting near Max Johnston when he crossed the ball for Patrick Agyemang to score.

Sadly for him, Agyemang picked up an knee injury last week that will keep him not only out of this game and the rest of Derby’s season, but the World Cup as well with the USA. Also missing for Derby this afternoon will be Ben Brereton Diaz who will of course be ineligible. The good news is that he has been playing relatively well, which should make it easier for us to move him on in the summer. With Derby being just a three points behind us in the League, it’s a game that we must win and a game that you would think will be very close. We thought all that before Wrexham on Tuesday, so with any luck, this turns out in roughly the same manner. Like in that game, if we turn up and bring the energy, we should have enough to win this game against the team who I expect to play a low block and try and hit us on the break and rely on set pieces. The speed of our attack will be important, given that the two Derby Central defenders Matt Clarke and Dion Sanderson are not the quickest, so we have to try and move them around and any opportunity that we do get to break upfield quickly, we have to take.

Tonda Eckert, fresh from picking up another Manager of the Month award for March, to add to his February award, hasn’t managed against Derby yet, but his press conference left no doubt that he knows what to expect and he’s earned the trust of the fanbase and we now expect him to make the right decisions regarding the makeup of the team. It’s going to be a different challenge to the last few home games, but I’m going into games now genuinely looking forward to finding out how he’s going to go about it.